


Worth

by forever_writing



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, F/M, Jedi, Love/Hate, Minor Character Death, Mystery, Sith, Violence, but mostly love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-10
Updated: 2017-01-12
Packaged: 2018-09-16 14:09:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9275408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/forever_writing/pseuds/forever_writing
Summary: "It was always a new race, a new species, never really the same people looking for her. There was no correlation, no common ground that she could find. The only pattern she could put together was that, no matter where she was, or what planet she was on, someone was always looking for her."Leena Brenko is an orphan who has been chased for over eight years for a reason that she is unaware of. Cassian Andor is a closed book with a shut lock and no key. Together they will find out what they are really worth.





	1. Gil's Cell

Leena Brenko didn’t know how she got here, both metaphorically and physically. 

Physically, she could remember being captured over a week ago while walking down an alley about an hour after landing on Jedha. By captured she means she remembers being hit roughly in the back of the head and waking up in a cell that she has not left since. The time in between that though, she had no idea what happened or how she got here.

Metaphorically, she couldn’t quite pinpoint the moment when her life turned into the constant need to run. The moment when it had changed from waking up in a home to waking up either on the side of the road or in the pilot's seat of the ship she stole wondering who was going to come after her that day. It was always a new race, a new species, never really the same people looking for her. There was no correlation, no common ground that she could find. The only pattern she could put together was that, no matter where she was, or what planet she was on, someone was always looking for her.

And to this day she had no idea why.

She had never done anything, at least she had never done anything up until people started chasing her. She was raised in a home for troubled girls on Elrood. Of course growing up in a home for troubled girls didn’t make Leena sound like the best of citizens, but she had been placed on the doorstep the day she was born so she really had no other options. She had been a good kid, not a great one, but a good one. She made sure to stay out of the way, and only caused trouble when she knew she wouldn’t get caught. She was a kid. 

The night of her sixteenth birthday was when her home was bombed. At the time, she had just thought somehow the home for troubled girls had been caught in a war crossfire, but now she knew better. That night she had escaped while her friends, and the women who raised her, died because someone wanted to kill her. 

Eight years have passed and she hasn’t stopped running since that day.

Sitting in the back of her cell, she looked out through the bars. She could see men walking back and forth through the main area that was right outside of the cells. Placing the cells in a main area meant that someone was always able to keep watch on the prisoners, plus there were only three cells to keep track of. Leena grudgingly admitted to herself that that was smart. There were so many prison cells she was able to escape from due to the simple fact that they only had incompetent people keeping watch. She wouldn’t be able to escape by just picking a lock here. 

“Leena?” A tiny voice asked quietly. 

Leena pulled herself out of her train of thought to look through the small barred hole that separated her from the cell to her left. She smiled softly and looked into the little boys wide blue eyes.

“What’s up Gil?” She asked, moving a bit so that she was seated in front of him so they could speak easier. 

Gil Donnall had appeared six days ago. He was thrown, quite literally, into the middle cell. They had slammed the cell door shut so harshly that it had pulled Leena out of her sleep at the time. She heard whatever the creature was that threw him in weeze a laugh through the breathing mask that covered his whole face with tubes that went all the way down and disappeared into his jacket. Leena glared at his back as she moved to peek into the cell to see who had been captured. 

The first time she saw Gil she couldn’t help but think about how small he looked. He had curled his body into a ball and was shaking from trying to keep his sobbing as quiet as possible. Leena almost turned away, but Gil looked up at her in that moment. It was then that she realized that Gil was actually a child and not just small human. 

When he got himself together and introduced himself he told her he was only seven. 

His parents were rebels and he had been trying to find them in a crowd when he had been snatched up. Tube Man, as he liked to call him, had questioned him about his parents and what they were doing on Jedha, but Gil knew enough to know that he wasn’t suppose to tell strangers that kind of stuff, so now he was here. All he wanted to do was get out so that he could find his parents. He kept telling Leena that he was going to be in so much trouble when he found them again since they never liked it when he got lost. Leena would only smile.

She had never liked children very much, not because they bothered her in particular, but because she had never had the time to get used to them. Before Gil, she had really never spoken to a child for any extended length of time. After a few days though, she found herself attached to the seven year old. She blamed it on the fact that he was the only one that she had to talk to, but she found herself getting stiff whenever one of the men would come anywhere near his cell. He had a good heart, better than anyone she had ever met. 

“They just put a man in the cell next to me,” Gil whispered back to her.

“Really?” Leena tried to peek through the bared hole that was on the other side of his cell, but was unable to see anything. “What does he look like?”

“He’s human. I can only see his back though. I think he has and imperial jacket on. He’s just laying on his side staring at the wall and moaning a lot.” Gil explained looking sad.

“He has an imperial jacket on?” Leena asked, her eyes a little wider.

“I think so,” Gil shrugged.

“Well then don’t try to talk to him,” Leena said trying to sound like she had any kind of authority over him.

“I know,” Gil said sounding upset, “he just sounds like he’s in a lot of pain, that’s all.”

“Well then he probably did something really bad that got him in a lot of trouble,” Leena said. 

Gil sat back, looking out into the main area outside of the cell and sighed. Typical Gil, caring about people that no one else would give a shit about. One time he had actually asked Leena if one of their captors would be alright when he had been carried in after being shot. She had almost yelled at him for caring, but she reminded herself that he was a kid. He just wanted people to get along. He wanted the universe to be safe. He wanted to find his parents.

They spent the rest of the day sitting close to the hole that connected them and talking about nothing. Every once and awhile the man in the third cell would let out a loud cry, causing Gil to stop speaking, but Leena would just plow through the conversation to distract him. She felt an odd need to shelter him from what was happening around him. He was only seven. 

They would toss pebbles that were on the ground of their cell into the main area and see who could get theirs the farthest without being noticed. They laughed quietly together, and it almost didn’t feel like they were in makeshift jail cells that looked like they could cave in at any moment. She felt as though he was the little brother she never wished for, but really didn’t mind having. 

After a while Gil started yawning. It was oddly so much easier to get tired when all you did was sit around all day. He fell asleep in the middle of their conversation and Leena smiled to herself. She would feign offense when he woke up that he would dare fall asleep while she was saying something to him. For now though, sleep didn’t seem like a bad idea. It didn’t take her long to join him. 

She dreamt of fire. Of burning all around her. Flames touching her skin, but having no effect. Walls crumbled and girls screamed and she was sixteen again. She could smell them, see them trying to escape before the next explosion hit, but she didn’t move. She didn’t try to help them. Her feet started moving to the exit. She started crying. She wanted to turn back, to grab someone, just one person, but her body wouldn’t allow it. She cried harder as she watched the flames softly move over her skin like silk. She couldn’t burn. She would escape and no one else would. 

She wanted to burn with them.

“Leena!” She was jolted awake by someone screaming her name.

She heard shuffling in the cell to her left and her heart sank down to her feet as she stood and moved to look through their hole.

It was happening so fast.

She saw the man's back in the small space and could see Gil’s legs kicking out trying to free himself as his screams for her were being muffled. They exited the cell and Leena realized it was the fucking Tube Man, the same guy that put him in there. Leena was screaming at him, but she really didn’t know what she was saying. 

“Shut up, bitch!” He wheezed through his mask with a heavy accent. 

“Let him go!” She didn’t realize that she had started crying. “Just let him go, he’s a kid!”

He placed Gil down in front of him so that Gil’s back was to her. “Exactly. He’s a just a kid who knows nothing and we need a cell cleared. The pilot delivered information to us and you are too valuable to lose. He is just a kid.” 

As he was speaking, Leena looked to were he motioned at the three men in handcuffs waiting for an empty cell. They were all watching her and Gil, waiting to see what happened and she hated them. One looked to be about her age, maybe a little older. One was an extremely large man with a rough look on his face, and the other appeared to be blind. She hated all of them.

“Take me. It doesn’t matter. I have no information for you, I’m worth nothing. I don’t know why I’m here! Just put him back in the cell. They can take my cell,” She was begging now. She had never begged in her life, especially not to any man. “Please, I’m worth nothing.”

He laughed painfully at that. “Oh, dear, you’re worth more than a million rebel scum children.”

He turned Gil roughly around so that he was facing Leena and her heart shattered. Tear tracks had cleared their way down his chubby, dirt covered cheeks. The left side of his face was bright red from having been recently slapped. His wide eyes begged for her to do something. To do anything. Tube Man pushed his little body forward so that he was almost in arms length of her cell. 

She sank down to her knees so they could be at eye level, pressed herself as close to the bars as she could be and demanded herself to stop crying. Everything was going to be okay.

“Gil, look at me,” She said, rushed. Everything seemed to be rushing. “Really look at me. You’re going to be fine.” She reached her hand through two bars out towards him to take. “Everything is okay. They’re going to let you go and you can go look for your parents.”

“But you’re suppose to help me,” he choked.

“That’s okay,” She shook her head. “I know you can find them all by yourself.”

He started crying harder.

“Gil, stop,” she tried not to get choked up. “Gil, look at me take my hand. Everything is going to be alright.” He took a small step forward and lifted his hand to put it into hers. “I’m not going to let any-”

Leena’s ears rang and she clamped her eyes shut and she felt her entire face and neck covered in a warm liquid. There was a still moment of silence where her body couldn’t, wouldn’t, realize what was happening. Everything had been rushed and now it was like everything had stopped.

She whipped whatever it was out of her eyes just as she heard his body hit the ground.

She felt like she was hallucinating, there was a small body on the ground without a head. The whole head was just gone. It took another moment to realize the small body was Gil’s and the liquid on her face was the remnants of his head. Of his mind.

She turned away and threw up.

She didn’t move for a long time. She heard the three men shuffle into Gil’s cell and she felt nothing. She watched as his blood dripped off of her face onto the ground and every nerve in her being wanted, needed, to get his blood off of her, but she felt nothing. She wanted to scream, wanted to cry, wanted to kill every fucking man she ever came in contact with now and forever, but she felt nothing.

At some point her body had moved itself into a limp sitting position in the middle of the cell.

She picked up a pebble and chucked it out of her cell, and she started to cry.


	2. Simple

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rogue One movie spoilers.

“You can use this to wipe your face off,” the voice sounded distant, as if Leena was underwater, and she almost didn’t react at all to it. She turned her head slightly to her left and saw that the blind man was holding out a black piece of cloth to her through the bars that her and Gil would talk through.

She did not move to grab it. He continued to hold it out to her.

It was like that for a while. She could hear the three of them talking, one of them pacing, and the man simply kept his hand outstretched through the bars holding out the piece of cloth to her.

She still wasn’t really taking anything in. She could feel her mind starting to move faster, but it seemed to be a process. Leena had seen a lot of shitty stuff in her life. She’d watched a lot of people die, even some children. She knew what it was like to have blood on her hands, but not like this. It was almost as if there was a little part of her soul that wouldn’t let her move because it knew she deserved this. She’d let so many people die, so many people she could have saved but didn’t because she didn’t have time to stop and help them. 

Gil was dead because she didn’t know how to save anyone.

She continued to stare at the body that they had not bothered to move.

“If you continue to look at his body like that it will be the only thing you’ll remember about him,” the blind man spoke. “You should wipe your face off, it’ll help.”

Her voice came through, but her eyes did not move. “I don’t want to.”

He smiled, “Yes you do.”

She still did not move.

The man who had been pacing, the one that looked a bit older than her, walked over to the bars that separated them and spoke with an accent, “There is no room for guilt in war. You can not be responsible for the acts of someone else. You acted to save the boy, that is what you are responsible for. Whether you did it or not isn’t up to you. Now, wipe off your face and stop looking at the body. It won’t help you.”

Her head turned quickly to glare at him. He seemed to flinch a little at the hatred in her eyes, and the blood smeared around her upper body, but he held his ground and gave it right back to her.

She hated him.

She maintained the glare they were giving one another as she snatched the cloth out of the blind man's hands. She only broke eye contact when she went to wipe the blood off of her face. As she wiped the cloth down her skin she shivered. By the end of it she felt clean on the surface, but she could still feel it in her pores and her skin crawled at the thought. She wanted to scream and scratch at her face, but instead she handed the cloth back to the man.

“Who’s the one in the cell to our left?” The blind man asked as he simply dropped the cloth on the cell floor beside him.

“Leave him alone,” Leena said before thinking.

The annoying one, of course, ignored her and turned to look into the leftmost cell. 

“Leave him alone,” Leena repeated, standing now to walk closer to the bars separating them.

“It’s an Imperial Pilot,” the man continued to ignore her as he inspected the other cell.

“I said leave him alone!” Leena said strongly now, hating this man more than ever.

He turned and glared at her again taking two strides to stand right infront of her with his arms crossed, “You work for the Empire?” He questioned harshly.

“No,” Leena said, her fists tightening in frustration.

He huffed a sarcastic laugh and rolled his eyes. “Sure. And why else would you care what happened to an Imperial Pilot?”

“He’s hurt,” she said.

“And?”

“And that’s it,” she said, growing even more frustrated. “I don’t fucking work for anyone. He just arrived and he’s been moaning since he got into that cell so just leave him alone. It’s not a hard concept.”

He narrowed his eyes and didn’t saying anything back. He looked as though he was trying to carefully choose his words, but after a moment his eyes widened and he quickly moved to the left side of his cell and began questioning the man, “Are you the pilot? Hey, look at me, are you the pilot?”

“Who do you thin-” she wasn’t able to finish as he stuck up his hand to signal her to shut up without looking at her.

“Pilot?” She heard a weak voice ask softly. 

“What’s wrong with him?” The third man spoke for the first time as he looked oddly into the injured mans cell. 

“Galen Erso. Do you know that name?” The man kept pressing for answers.

There was a moment of nothing until Leena finally heard the man in the third cell say, “I brought the message, I’m the pilot. I’m the pilot. I’m the pilot.”

“What is he talking about?” Leena asked.

“Where is Galen Erso?” The man asked quickly.

“Imperial Research Facility. Highly classified. Can’t tell you. Can’t tell you. Can take you. I know where it is I’ve been there. Research facility. But can’t tell you. Can take you. Can take you.” He kept going on as the other man sighed.

“That’s good,” He said over his mumbling. “You’ll take us then.”

“I’ll take you.”

The man stood and turned back to Leena, clearly done pressing the poor guy for information. “What’s your name?”

Leena hesitated for a second, but decided it would be more trouble to refuse him. “Leena Brenko.”

“I’m Cassian Andor,” he said, sounding professional now. “I work with the rebellion. This is Chirrut and Baze, they recently joined me. We’re going to be getting out of here soon and you can either choose to join us or stay behind. It’s up to you.”

Leena was a little taken back that this Cassian would ask her to go anywhere with him after he had been such an ass to her before. Her first instinct was to say no just because of how much she disliked him. Her second instinct was to say no because he works for the rebellion. Of course she valued and believed in what they stood for, but she has been chased by members of the rebellion before. Clearly they hadn’t liked her then, and just because Cassian didn’t seem to know her name, that doesn’t mean any other rebel might hear it and try to get to her. She couldn’t trust anyone. 

Just as she was about to open her mouth to say no to him, there was a large shock wave that seemed to move the entire planet. Rocks fell from the ceiling and it became clear the place was going to cave in on itself if whatever was happening continued. 

After the initial shock, she looked back up at Cassian with wide eyes and answered, “I think I’ll go with you.”

Cassian quickly sprang into action as he talked into some sort of com on his jacket. “K-2, can you hear me? I need you to locate our position and bring the ship here immediately. We have extra passengers.”

In all of the commotion, none of the captors cared when Cassian pulled out a gun and shot the lock off of his cell door. He quickly shot the lock off of the leftmost cell and told Baze to take care of getting the pilot to the ship. He then came to the front of her cell and paused for a moment.

Leena didn’t know what the pause was, but he was looking right at her, probably still trying to decide whether he was making a huge mistake in letting her join them. She was about to yell at him to hurry up when he finally shot the lock off.

“You’ll stick with Baze and Chirrut and if you pull anything that they don’t like they will kill you,” he said matter-of-factly as he turned and started to move in the opposite direction of the exit.

“Where are you going?” She yelled after him over the commotion going on around them.

“I’ll be back in time,” is all he answered with before he disappeared, turning a corner. 

Chirrut seemed eerily calm as he came to stand beside Leena. “Shall we head to the ship now?” He asked causing her to look away from the corner that Cassian had just turned. 

“Yeah,” she said. “Yeah, obviously.”

They were only able to walk at a quick pace because the pilot was clearly unable to run. They simply followed the flow of men out to the exit, but she had a feeling Chirrut would have known how to get out either way. She could hear him saying something quickly to himself as they continued to dodge falling rocks. She wasn’t able to make it out at first, but when she figured it out it was clear to hear. “I am one with the Force. The Force is with me.”

She looked at him a little oddly until Baze caught her. “He prays to the Force.”

“Is he a Jedi?”

Chirrut laughed at that.

Baze rolled his eyes, “No, he’s just delusional.”

“He doesn’t like when I do it because he knows it works and it frustrates him,” Chirrut smiled fondly.

“That’s what he likes to think,” Baze mumbled as he continued to carry the pilot along.

Eventually they emerged from where they were being held and Leena couldn't fully comprehend what she was seeing. A giant beam of bright light was coming down onto the planet creating a huge cloud of dust and rocks that was quickly headed right towards them. She could feel her heart racing with the immediate thought that there was no way that they were going to get out of this. 

Then the ship came into view and Baze started running will carrying the pilot.

When they arrived to the open ship doors, Leena jumped in only to be immediately questioned by a large Imperial droid sitting in the co-pilot's seat. “Where is Cassian?”

Leena only stared with her mouth open trying to piece together why an Imperial droid would be asking about Cassian if he clearly stated earlier that he was a rebel. There was a short moment where she thought maybe he had lied to her and now she had gone and gotten herself involved with the Empire. The thought was cut short though when Chirrut got himself settled in a seat and responded, “He is not far behind with Jyn. They should be jumping in any moment now.”

“Oh,” the droid said flatly, “I had thought we might be leaving her. How unfortunate.”

Leena stood rooted where she was, not sure what to do with herself. In a few short hours everything had changed completely. Gil was gone, she wasn’t in a cell, she was running away with men that she was pretty sure she still hated, and Jedha was being blown up. She felt like her whole body was on edge, tingling with anxiety. She felt cramped in the large ship considering the fact that she had never flown in a ship with another human being in her life. One doesn’t exactly share ships if they're stealing them. 

Her body jumped defensively as Cassian and a woman tumbled into the ship and Cassian ran to the pilot's chair.

Leena didn’t have much time to look at the woman since Cassian started to put the ship into lightspeed and she was only given moments to throw herself into one of the seats and strap herself in. 

It was eerily quiet when they managed to get themselves out of danger.

Cassian let out a large sigh that he had been holding in, Chirrut and Baze didn’t seem to care much about the silence, the droid had finally stopped telling Cassian that the odds were against them, the pilot was holding his knees to his chest in his seat, and when Leena finally looked at the girl she was already staring at her. 

Leena quickly looked down at her feet, and she heard the girl unbuckle her seatbelt and stand up. “Where are we going?” She questioned, breaking the silence.

“The pilot is going to lead us,” Cassian said, standing and walking towards the pilot.

“Bodhi,” he said quietly.

“Bodhi is going to lead us,” Cassian corrected.

The girl took a once over of Bodhi, who was still hugging his legs to himself and staring at nothing. “Yes, he seems quite capable.” She remarked sarcastically and turned her attention to Leena. “Who are you?”

“Who are you?” Leena shot back.

The girl held her gaze for a moment, “Jyn Erso.”

“Leena Brenko.” She shot back before thinking.

Jyn tilted her head curiously, narrowing her eyes, “Do I know you?”

“No,” Leena answered too quickly, causing Cassian to look over his shoulder at her oddly.

She could see Jyn trying to figure out why her name was familiar. She refused to break eye contact with her, fearing that it would make her look guilty of something. 

“If no one informs me of a destination in the very near future there is a 67.4% chance that we will not have enough fuel to land us anywhere,” the droid interrupted.

“I’m on it, K-2,” Cassian answered.

Jyn broke eye contact and moved to a seat closest to the pilot.

Leena let out a breath and moved to seat herself farthest away from everyone.

She zoned out into her own thoughts as Cassian got Bodhi to follow him the the pilot's area and inform them of where they needed to go. She started to think of how she was going to get away from them. When it came to it, it probably wouldn’t be hard at all. All she needed to do was get off the ship wherever they landed and slip away when they weren’t paying attention to her. 

Simple.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So to start this off I just want to say thanks so much for your kudos and comments on the last chapter! I always love reading what you guys have to say.  
> Also, you've probably noticed the similarities to the movie, and the slight differences. Obviously I've made differences so that my character can fit in and I know that the fanfic will start to become very different from the movie farther into it. But for now I'm just trying to get it started in a way that makes sense.  
> Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and would love to hear your comments!  
> C


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